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Blade Runner The Final Cut

I watched Blade Runner, The Director’s Cut for the upteenth time Monday, appreciating the film’s flaws, and speculating on which ones Ridley Scott would clean up with the final, digitally-remastered version.

Of course, all the silliness that made the original theatrical release of Blade Runner a total flop would stay on the cutting room floor. The bad narration and pasted in happy ending wouldn’t sully the film, but what about the other items that dated the movie? The strings visible in one scene… The H.R. Geiger background that doesn’t quite fit… The sound overlays that didn’t quite match… how much of this would Ridley Scott fix?

When you can add “esque” to the end of a film’s title, you know it was a breakthrough in filmmaking. Ridley Scott’s story takes place in San Angeles, San Diego and Los Angeles grown into one another, a bit of futurism considered outlandish in 1982, but today is a reality. Akira, Battle Angel Alita, and Ghost in the Shell all model their worlds on Blade Runner’s cinematic style. The film’s philosophical dilemmas were as old as Frankenstein, but the plot devices used to explore them were novel, later appearing in films like A.I. and I, Robot.

The Final Cut was released yesterday, but nowhere in Elizabeth City would carry it and it’s not on Netflix. One kid working at Blockbuster apologized and couldn’t believe they didn’t get at least one copy.

So I scrambled, found a copy, and just finished watching it. It’s Beautiful!!! The special effects are so much clearer, revealing more detail in the city. The sound effects are so much more detailed, so that we can hear Roy whispering to Sebastian as he comes after him in a haunting scene. This is movie that could have come recently, it’s so relevant and it’s style so dateless.

The plot twist is still there, and is still very easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention. I’ve never actually met anyone who’s caught it, and only know about it myself from an interview with Ridley Scott, where the director actually came out and explained it.

This is a classic groundbreaking film, and deserves to be in everyone’s film collection.

Plot spoiler!!! (If you’ve never seen ANY version of the film)

Pay attention to Deckard’s dream/waking vision of a unicorn running through the forest, and the origami calling card left for him at the film’s end.

Why would that be there?

Kill-A-Watt

Awhile back I blogged on Blackle.com, a black-background version of google.com that purported to save energy by reducing the amount of light monitors needed to emit to display their page. Researchers confirmed this was true of old, obsolete CRT monitors, but flat screens used more energy to suppress white than display it.

Well, my Kill-A-Watt ($25) arrived in the mail awhile back, and it’s now official. My computer system, running dual flat-screen monitors uses 254 to 255 Kilowatt Hours of electricity to display Google on both screens, and 255 to 256 kilowatt hours to display Blackle on both screens. With both monitors turned off, my computer uses 142 kwh.

You know what else I found? My computer consumes 14 kHz when it’s turned off. After some troubleshooting, I found this was because I leave my speakers on, turning them off reduced my power consumption at this wall socket to zero when not in use.

The Kill-A-Watt is a handy device, and one I’ve returned to regularly in the last couple of months out of curiosity to see how changes to my computer affect its power consumption. It provides several different ways to measure consumption, including a clock that tracks total energy used.

The Kill-A-Watt has also made me a bit more energy conscious, and that’s why I’m recommending it as a gift. It’s a scientific tool that gives me a clearer understanding of how my actions affect the burden I place on the Earth, and the burden I place on my pocketbook when the power bill arrives.